#McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II

[usafphantom2]

Two different generations at #RamsteinFlag24 being held in Greece 🇬🇷 at the moment [Pic NATO] #F4 #F35

@Saint1mil via X

[nocternalrandomness]

Phantoms from the 86th TFW over Germany - 1985

[eyestothe-skies]

McDonnell Douglas RF-4E Kai Phantom II, JASDF

Source: masahi

[spyskrapbook]

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II _ Hellenic Air Force _ Tanagra Air Force Base _ Athens Flying Week, Greece [02.09.2023] _ Photos by: Spyros Kaprinis.

https://www.haf.gr/arsenal/f-4e-phantom-ii/

[enriquemzn262]

Have you ever wondered how the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, famous for not having an internal gun and paying the price during the first few years of the Vietnam War, actually got one during the course of the war and in relatively short order?

F-4B of the US Navy

Well, it’s really simple: McDonnell Douglas had also developed a recon variant of the Phantom, the RF-4, which basically traded the radar for a camera set, requiring a longer nose to fit it, but which was otherwise identical to the combat variants.

So once the need for an internal gun was made, it was a simple matter of swapping the camera equipment for a gun, and adding the radar back

And thus, the gun-equipped F-4E, was born, giving a starting point for subsequent advanced variants, all equipped with guns.

[dangerousthingobservation]

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II 196 TFS / 163 TFG / California ANG 3 September 1987 Photo by:Stephan de Bruijn

[alex99achapterthree]

Phantom Friday...

... last of the breed.

The very last F-4 Phantom to be built in the United States, an F-4E-67-MC S/N 78-0744 rolled out of the McDonnell-Douglas plant on this day, October 25, in 1979.

To make matters even more bittersweet, it wasn't a Phantom for the US Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps. Even tho it bore a US serial number, It was transferred to the Republic of Korea Air Force under the Peace Pheasant II Foreign Military Sales program.

When production ended at the Saint Louis plant, more than 2,600 went to the USAF, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps had accepted another 1200 and the rest went to friendly foreign nations.

A little-known fact, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries built 138 Phantoms under license in Japan. One of the aircraft (17-8440) was the last of the 5,195 F-4 Phantoms to be produced. It was manufactured by Mitsubishi on 21 May 1981.

[opelman]

Phantom Phighter by Treflyn Lloyd-Roberts Via Flickr: Turkish F-4 73-1023 taxis at Fairford with its drag chute deployed having arrived to take part in the static display at the 2023 Royal International Air Tattoo. The aircraft wears a "Tribute to Old Phantom Phighters" special tail scheme. Aircraft: Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force) McDonnell Douglas F-4E-2020 Phantom II 73-1023/023 from 111 Filo. Location: RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire.

[dronescapesvideos]

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II dropping Mk 82 bombs, 1986 ➤F-4 VIDEO: https://youtu.be/0M2XfMjwRwo

➤HD IMAGE: https://dronescapes.video/F4Phantom

[crazygadgetshere]

Thunderbirds F-4E Released in April

Fine Molds will release next month a McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II at 1:72 in the colors of the USAF Thunderbirds. Released on April 3, 2019. Further details can be found on the webpage. Kit includes two seated figures.

[usafphantom2]

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom IIs operated by the 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (85th Fighter Group), stationed at Keflavik Airport, Iceland.

@Tigershark3082 via X

[nocternalrandomness]

Section Take Off RWY 32 - March AFB - August 1988

[j-r-macready]

67-0270 | McDonnell Douglas | F-4E-34-MC Phantom II | USAF by Florian DSO Via Flickr: McDonnell Douglas F-4E-34-MC Phantom II, (c/n 2997/0162), USAF s/n 67-0270, GA 21st TFTS 35TFW, 1989. 2 stars as a Mig Killer (Hum !). A nice study of F-4E-34-MC, 67-0270 assigned as the 21st TFTS Commander's jet, 35th TTW, home based at George AFB. Strange but true! Here are two errors relating to the livery of this Phantom : 1) It is funny that the paint shop screwed up the aircraft S/N on the fin, there was never an F-4E with the S/N 67-6270 built. 2) In addition, this aircaft carries two MiG kill stars on the intake vari ramp. In fact, 67-0270 was credited with shooting down only one MIG-21 on 8 Jul 1972 over North Vietnam (Mig 21), unit 4th TFS 366th TFW, Thailand. *1973: USAF 4th TFW. No one knows why no correction had been made since! Scanned from my original 35mm slide, which is part of my own personal collection. It is therefore with pleasure that I share this photo with the people of FLICKR. Obviously, I also thank its author, to whom I give it all the credit. abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1336766

[chrisrobe96]

IIAF Modernisation Plan

In the 1970s Iran was modernising at a rapid rate and certainly these efforts can be seen in the expansion and new equipment being acquired by its armed forces. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran was especially keen on bringing his most favourite branch, the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) to the highest standard using the best available aircraft and weapon systems manufactured at the time.

The Shah was interested in creating the most powerful Air Force in the Middle East, as well as ensuring his country was able to defend itself against any Soviet expansion in the area as they had already clashed in several airspace violations resulting in a number of aircraft lost. For this his Air Force commanders had come up with a rather ambitious plan to bring the IIAF up to strength using the best available equipment, regardless of the cost.

The plan involved introducing the following aircraft into service:

Northrup F-5E/F Freedom Fighters: By 1976 over 166 of these aircraft were already in IIAF service, replacing the earlier A/B variants and able to mount more modern armaments like the AGM-65 Maverick or the BL.755 cluster bombs.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs: First entering service in 1968 the mighty Phantom would form the backbone of the IIAF and by 1979 there were over 240 in service and these included 40 F-4Ds, 170 F-4Es and 30 RF-4E photo reconnaissance aircraft. They were a step up from the F-5s and could carry almost anything the Air Force needed including GBU-10 laser guided bombs and Mk.82 Snakeye bombs.

Grumman F-14A GR Tomcat: The core of the IIAFs plans, the mighty Tomcat would be Iran’s premier fighter/Interceptor with its phenomenal AN/AWG-9 weapon control system paired with the powerful Aim 54A Phoenix missiles allowing it to own long distance engagements and yet its straight forward flying characteristics and low speed agility made it a deadly dogfighter when needed. By 1978 there were 79 out of the 80 in Iran and plans were drawn up for an additional 70 aircraft, taking the potential number in service to 150 (although Iran was not willing to acquire anymore of them until the problematic Pratt & Whitney TF-30 414 engines were replaced as the stalling issues were already apparent). In addition 712 Aim 54As had been ordered.

General Dynamics F-16A/B Fighting Falcon: Over 300 F-16A/Bs were planned to be acquired and work alongside the existing F-5E/Fs and cover different parts of the country, the new Fighting Falcons would have been able to carry most of the modern arms being introduced and would have been by far the most numerous aircraft in the IIAF. Equipment and jigs needed to look after the aircraft were being set up in Iran when the 79’ revolution ended US-Iran relations before any of the aircraft were completed (interesting fact these aircraft would end up in Israel).

Northrop F/A-18L Hornet: A planned land-based export model of the Navy’s F/A-18A that had just entered service, 150 of these had been planned for service starting in the mid-1980s and would have certainly have been one of the more powerful mutli-role aircraft in the IIAF, possibily replacing the F-4s that were already in service.

Boeing E-3 Sentry: As well as having a powerful fleet of fast jets the IIAF needed to allow the aircraft to be controlled effectively and securely and so a total of 8 E-3s had been planned as well as 2 communication satellites to allow all the aircraft to operate effectively and the E-3’s Radar would completely avoid the poor coverage problems faced by the ground stations due to the geographical nature of the country and the poor equipment being used.

In all the IIAF’s combat aircraft strength would have peaked at over 1000 aircraft by the late 1980s/ early 90s had the plans been allowed to happen and it was hoped the IIAF’s training schools would qualify 200 new pilots a month once the infrastructure was in place, the pilots being trained to top western standards, especially those who were to fly the Tomcats.

I doubt however this would have ever happened, I’m sure the US, especially once Jimmy Carter was elected would never have allowed Iran to reach such a level of power, it’s Air Force alone would have been more powerful than most NATO nations and certainly Iran’s population would have been bitter to see so much money being spent on a vast and costly fleet of aircraft when the country itself was far from modernised, almost being a waypoint between the new world and the traditional Islamic world. However even with just the F-5s, F-4s and the F-14s Iran was already in a different league with its air Power, something that would be demonstrated in the brutal air war with Iraq just a few years later.

Had the plans been allowed to happen the capabilities of the IIAF would have been vast, combining the best Modern US-produced aircraft with up-to-date weapons and state of the art communications and radar coverage and would certainly had been difficult to challenge. An interesting look at the ambitions of the Shah before we was swept from power and many of these planned ideas would never happen.

[coldwarairforce]

From Museum of Flight OTD (February 26th) in 1975 legendary Flying Ace, Chuck Yeager took his final flight as an active duty Air Force Officer in the prototype McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II 65-0713. Chuck accumulated 10,131.6 flight hours during his career. Photo: Air Force

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[dangerousthingobservation]

A U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II from the 526th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 86th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany on 20 July 1982. (Sutherland)